The New Yorker - Rosie the Riveter

I participated in the Women's March in Augusta, Maine, and the spirit of the day, with all the energy and camaraderie and the strength of the women and men around me, inspired me to paint my version of Rosie the Riveter as a woman of color with her knitted pink pussy cap. You can purchase prints of the cover from the New Yorker directly.

Here's a bit more about the New Yorker cover from my Huffington Post interview: 

"On the Monday following the march, I started thinking about the art I wanted to make in response to my own experience, as well as the collective experience of women nationally and worldwide.

I adored seeing the images flooding in of the sea of women (and men) in pink hats. So much pink! I saw a headline from a newspaper that read “She the People” and I thought, “She The People: The revolution will be handmade.”

I started thinking how there was this effort on the part of women to create a symbol for the march. It felt reminiscent of World War II when women rationed silk stockings in order to have enough material for the soldiers’ parachutes. How women knit for the soldiers and filled in at the factories while the men were away at war. Just like how we are reclaiming the word “pussy,” the hat is also a symbol of our history in our country - we are knitting something for the new “war effort” to fight for our rights as women. We are knitting for ourselves.

I turned to Rosie as a symbol to convey the transformation we have taken from the times of WWII. I made Rosie a woman of color, because as an artist I feel it’s my job to paint diversity. before the women's march, I read how important it is for children, especially for children of color, to see images of Barack Obama in their schools, and how once they left office- these images would be replaced with the portrait of the next president, a characters who's aim is to tear down all that Michelle and Barack accomplished.

So I concluded, why not give girls of color, and everyone for that matter, an image of a Rosie with brown skin? It was just a no-brainer."

Purchase prints of The New Yorker cover.

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Purchase the Puzzle of The New Yorker cover.

More about the cover:

The New Yorker

Bustle

How do you get a New Yorker cover? Learn all about the thought process behind Abigail's pitch to The New Yorker in her Huffington Post Interview.